For The Feminine Mystique's golden-jubilee reissue, we asked some women who were there, and some who were not, to tell us what the book meant then and what it means now.

The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique

It was the perfect title—a phrase suggesting an aura of enticement that, as you read into the book, morphed into a smog of bewilderment, "the problem with no name" that confronted the women of America's burgeoning middle class. What were they supposed to do with their lives? And Betty Friedan—a former psychology grad student and union activist who had been writing for women's magazines—was its perfect author. And the book came out at the perfect time, in February 1963. For the rest of her days, Friedan would be accosted by women who would exclaim, "Your book changed my life!"

Erica Jong & Molly Jong- Fast

Erica Jong & Molly Jong- Fast

Erica Jong: Betty felt that meaningful work was important [the two women were writerly acquaintances] and you couldn’t be a happy person if you didn’t have a cause you believed in. But you didn’t have to be going to an office.

Molly Jong-Fast: I think I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but I had my first child at 25, and when I got married, a lot of my friends were like, "You're insane, this is too young, you need to wait."

Erica: Katie Roiphe said you were a child bride.

Molly: Mom!

Erica: [Laughing] Am I allowed to say that?

Molly: Everyone was like, "You're doing this terrible thing to yourself." One of my friends said I should get an abortion. And I thought, This seems insane, that this is the new norm. So I think books like this, as much as they do good, they also do bad. They set up an expectation that you should have more, you should always be looking for more. Why should you have more? Why shouldn't you have less?

Erica: Well, let's go back to what makes a happy person. I think family is very important—it has been to me—but having meaningful work is important too, and bringing those two things together is harder for women.

Molly: It's true—but do you deserve them?

Erica: I deserve the right to use my God-given skill, which is communication. I deserve that right—and I also deserve the right to be a mother and a grandmother and to be involved in that.

Molly: But I don't agree—I'm not sure that’s a right. When you get into rights, you get into a lot of trouble. I don't know that you’re entitled to things.

Erica: I object to the term entitlement, because I believe that certain things are not entitlements but human needs.